07-24-2003, 06:26 PM
The anti-LTTE Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) says that the only solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil problem is to get the ruling United National Front (UNF) and the opposition Peoples' Alliance (PA) to come out with a joint proposal for a federal system and have India to back it to the hilt.
V Ramraj, ENDLF's Central Committee member and its organiser in Europe, told Hindustan Times that Tamils who believed in democracy and the unity of Sri Lanka, were unable to stem the tide of militancy and separatism represented by the LTTE because the two major Sinhala political parties had not bothered to make an alternative, joint offer of a federal structure. Whenever a government had made an offer, the party in opposition would scuttle it.
"The Tamil people do not know what the two main political formations in the country have for them. The UNF and the PA must therefore come out with a joint constitutional package and place it before the Tamil people," Ramraj said.
And, equally importantly, the package must enjoy the full backing of India, he said. "There can be no solution which does not have India's backing," he noted.
"Anti-LTTE groups like the ENDLF, EPRLF-V, EPDP, PLOTE and a section of the TULF can take on the LTTE politically if such a package were on offer," he said. In Ramraj's view, despite the LTTE's military power and ability to intimidate or eliminate its opponents or rivals, it can be matched on the political battlefield, if the opposition groups are armed with a good political package.
The PA had brought out a devolution package when it was in power in 2000, but the UNP (as the UNF was at that time) scuttled it. The UNP government itself was badly divided on the solution contained in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. Ramraj pointed out that the UNP, in its incarnation as UNF, had been ruling since December 2001, but was yet to make an offer.
The UNF's thesis is that a solution can be found only in the process of negotiating with the LTTE. But peace talks with the LTTE have been held six times, but till date, nothing has emerged. Neither the government nor the LTTE has any blueprint of a federal structure.
Ramraj, who is running the Tamil Broadcasting Corporation, the only non-LTTE- controlled, independent Tamil radio station in London, said that the LTTE feared India and was in the process of physically annihilating and neutralising groups which believed in an India-backed solution to the Tamil problem.
The LTTE has so far killed over 40 political activists of rival pro-Indian political groups, including Robert, Jaffna organiser of the EPRLF-V, he said. Of late, the LTTE is also trying to entice these groups by offering them a political role apparently to neutralise them, he said. According to Ramraj, this is mainly to wean them away from India and eliminate the Indian factor in Tamil politics.
V Ramraj, ENDLF's Central Committee member and its organiser in Europe, told Hindustan Times that Tamils who believed in democracy and the unity of Sri Lanka, were unable to stem the tide of militancy and separatism represented by the LTTE because the two major Sinhala political parties had not bothered to make an alternative, joint offer of a federal structure. Whenever a government had made an offer, the party in opposition would scuttle it.
"The Tamil people do not know what the two main political formations in the country have for them. The UNF and the PA must therefore come out with a joint constitutional package and place it before the Tamil people," Ramraj said.
And, equally importantly, the package must enjoy the full backing of India, he said. "There can be no solution which does not have India's backing," he noted.
"Anti-LTTE groups like the ENDLF, EPRLF-V, EPDP, PLOTE and a section of the TULF can take on the LTTE politically if such a package were on offer," he said. In Ramraj's view, despite the LTTE's military power and ability to intimidate or eliminate its opponents or rivals, it can be matched on the political battlefield, if the opposition groups are armed with a good political package.
The PA had brought out a devolution package when it was in power in 2000, but the UNP (as the UNF was at that time) scuttled it. The UNP government itself was badly divided on the solution contained in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. Ramraj pointed out that the UNP, in its incarnation as UNF, had been ruling since December 2001, but was yet to make an offer.
The UNF's thesis is that a solution can be found only in the process of negotiating with the LTTE. But peace talks with the LTTE have been held six times, but till date, nothing has emerged. Neither the government nor the LTTE has any blueprint of a federal structure.
Ramraj, who is running the Tamil Broadcasting Corporation, the only non-LTTE- controlled, independent Tamil radio station in London, said that the LTTE feared India and was in the process of physically annihilating and neutralising groups which believed in an India-backed solution to the Tamil problem.
The LTTE has so far killed over 40 political activists of rival pro-Indian political groups, including Robert, Jaffna organiser of the EPRLF-V, he said. Of late, the LTTE is also trying to entice these groups by offering them a political role apparently to neutralise them, he said. According to Ramraj, this is mainly to wean them away from India and eliminate the Indian factor in Tamil politics.
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